Characteristics of project management at institutions sponsoring National Library of Medicine MedlinePlus Go Local.

Objectives: Through interviews with the National Library of Medicine's MedlinePlus Go Local collaborators, an evaluation team sought to identify process characteristics that are critical for long-term sustainability of Go Local projects and to describe the impact that Go Local projects have on sponsoring institutions.

Methods: Go Local project coordinators (n = 44) at 31 sponsor institutions participated in semi-structured interviews about their experiences developing and maintaining Go Local sites. Interviews were summarized, checked for accuracy by the participating librarians, and analyzed using a general inductive methodology.

Creating the first MedlinePlus "Go Local" service: lessons and recommendations from the evaluation of NC Health Info.

NC Health Info is an online collection of North Carolina based health services Web sites that seamlessly links local health resources to topical health information on MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine's consumer health information Web site. NC Health Info was the first project to connect local resources with MedlinePlus in the "Go Local" initiative. As such, NC Health Info serves as a model for other states to follow in connecting their own local information with Medline- Plus.

National survey of pediatric residency program directors and residents regarding education in palliative medicine and end-of-life care.

Purpose: To determine how palliative and end-of-life care can best be incorporated into the training of pediatric residents.

Methods: From 2001 to 2002, we surveyed 246 directors and 235 residents of pediatric residency programs. We elicited responses regarding (1) perceived relevance of pediatric palliative care, (2) residents' exposure to palliative medicine, (3) competency of faculty and matriculating residents in palliative care, (4) core palliative medicine competencies, and (5) the best teaching/learning format for palliative care.

MedlinePlus and the challenge of low health literacy: findings from the Colonias project.

Objective: To explore the potential of a community-based health information outreach project to overcome problems associated with health literacy in low-income Hispanic communities along the Texas-Mexico border.

Methods: Using a train-the-trainer approach, community outreach workers known as promotoras were trained by a health information outreach team to search English and Spanish versions of MedlinePlus. These 15 promotoras submitted written examples on a weekly basis of the topics they helped residents explore on MedlinePlus and the ways in which the residents used the information.

Becoming better health care providers: outcomes of a primary care service-learning project in medical school.

Medical educators have begun to embrace service-learning as a method for teaching medical students to be more socially responsible, patient-oriented practitioners. However, research documenting the learning outcomes of service-learning in medical education is limited. In this paper, written documents generated through evaluation of a mandatory, structured community service-learning experience were analyzed qualitatively to discover the diverse learning outcomes among 24 students who participated in the experience.

Health information Hispanic outreach in the Texas Lower Rio Grande Valley.

Purpose: This paper provides an overview of the two-year Texas Lower Rio Grande Valley Health Information Hispanic Outreach (HI HO) project. The project included a needs assessment, four pilot projects, and focus groups on the use of MedlinePlus and MedlinePlus en español. The needs assessment included a survey of physicians' information usage and a review of the circuit librarian program that had been established in 1989.

Using evaluation to adapt health information outreach to the complex environments of community-based organizations.

Objective: After arguing that most community-based organizations (CBOs) function as complex adaptive systems, this white paper describes the evaluation goals, questions, indicators, and methods most important at different stages of community-based health information outreach.

Main Points: This paper presents the basic characteristics of complex adaptive systems and argues that the typical CBO can be considered this type of system. It then presents evaluation as a tool for helping outreach teams adapt their outreach efforts to the CBO environment and thus maximize success.

A short transitional course can help medical students prepare for clinical learning.

Background And Objectives: Despite the move toward integrated 4-year medical school curricula, many medical schools still offer a "2+2" curriculum divided into preclinical and clinical phases. These phases represent distinct learning environments that require different learning skills. To prepare students for learning in the clinical environment of the second 2 years, many medical schools offer transitional experiences before the third-year clerkships.

High school peer tutors teach MedlinePlus: a model for Hispanic outreach.

Objectives: The objective was to introduce the MedlinePlus Website to the predominantly Hispanic residents of the Lower Rio Grande Valley region of Texas by partnering with a health professions magnet high school (known as Med High).

Methods: Community assessment was used in the planning stages and included pre-project focus groups with students and teachers. Outreach methods included peer tutor selection, train-the-trainer sessions, school and community outreach, and pre- and posttests of MedlinePlus training sessions.

The BELIEF Instrument: a preclinical teaching tool to elicit patients' health beliefs.

Purpose: The BELIEF Instrument is a cultural interviewing tool for preclinical medical students that does not require diagnostic or therapeutic skills.

Methods: An expert panel developed and taught the instrument to 200 first-year medical students in (1) a didactic session, (2) standardized patient interviews, and (3) clinical correlation sessions with community physicians and third-year medical students. Standardized patients evaluated students on the BELIEF questions in a graded interview.

The effectiveness of a Mock Board experience in coaching students for the Dental Hygiene National Board Examination.

A Mock Board is available through the American Dental Association to any student or dental hygiene program as a study aid for the Dental Hygiene National Board Examination (DHNBE). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of this Mock Board as a learning activity to help students gain familiarity with the question formats and the overall board exam experience. A sensitivity-specificity model was applied to validate the Mock Board's accuracy in identifying students who would pass or fail the DHNBE.

An encounter card system for increasing feedback to students.

Background: Student satisfaction with the feedback process is essential for motivating students to improve their performance.

Methods: Third-year medical students participated in a system to increase feedback from faculty, fellows, and residents during a 12-week surgery clerkship. Each student received 40 encounter cards to solicit verbal and written feedback on specific domains of clinical performance.

Use of focus groups in a library's strategic planning process.

The use of focus groups to determine patron satisfaction with library resources and services is extensive and well established. This article demonstrates how focus groups can also be used to help shape the future direction of a library as part of the strategic planning process. By responding to questions about their long-term library and information needs, focus group participants at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas Library contributed an abundance of qualitative patron data that was previously lacking from this process.